Hedge fund head raises cash for FoodBank

Jerry McCrea/The Star Ledger(left to right) Robert H. Doherty, state president for the New Jersey Bank of America; Amera Woods of Newark, Food Bank volunteer; David Tepper, president of Appaloosa Management L.P.; and Mary Pat Christie, First Lady of New Jersey; load boxes bound for needy seniors with food following a press conference held to announce a new capital campaign for the Community Foodbank of New Jersey, held at their facility in Hillside. 01/19/2011

David Tepper, head of one of the state’s biggest hedge funds, has had a history of giving to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

But this year he decided he also could use his influence as president of Appaloosa Management of Chatham to solicit donations from leaders of other New Jersey finanicial institutions.

Tepper was introduced today at the FoodBank as the driving force behind the a new capital campaign to raise $15 million for the Hillside-based charity.

“This is not the time to be quiet, so I told them I’d go out with them and help them raise money and be out there a little more,” he said. “When I call these guys, they’re going to pick up my call.”

In addition to contributing $2 million from his own company, which has $15 billion under management, Tepper has raised more than $5 million by soliciting donations from financial institutions including PNC Bank, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs. Add in a $1 million contribution by Bank of America Charitable Foundation, and the campaign is well underway with $8.7 million raised so far.

Kathleen DiChiara, the FoodBank’s president and CEO, said the organization, which distributed 37 million pounds of groceries last year, welcomes the help.

“We need to invest in our infrastructure to ensure that we will be able to continue to be here as long as the need is out there,” she said.

The $15 million would fund an $8 million facilities renovation and expansion, a $2 million upgrade of its truck fleet, and a $2 million increase of its pantry and food stamp outreach programs.

The last $3 million would be used to bolster the organization’s cash reserve.
With food distribution growing more than 60 percent over the past three years, Richard Brody, the FoodBank’s board chairman, said it has outgrown the space not only in Hillside, but at its South Jersey branch. The building in Egg Harbor Township will be demolished and “built from the slab up to accommodate the increase in need and the fresh produce we’ll start receiving this year,” he said.

Brody also stressed the need to upgrade the foodbank’s aging building in Hillside.

“As you can see, we clearly need it,” he said, pointing to three plastic bins catching water from the warehouse roof.

New Jersey first lady Mary Pat Christie, and Robert Doherty, state president of Bank of America and a foodbank board member, joined Tepper today to help volunteers stock boxes with canned fruits, vegetables, meat and condensed milk.

DiChiara said the key to the fund drive is to get both big and small donors to participate.

“We’re half way there, but we need to get all the way there and that means not only those who give millions, it’s also those who are going to give us $50 (or) $10, that is going to get us to the end,” she said. “I don’t want to be spending years trying to get money when there’s such an urgent need out there.”